Production Scheduler - Hybrid

At Eagle Foods we are builders.  We are builders of brands, categories, and people.  Eagle Foods enjoys a rich heritage with brands that have proven category leadership for more than 150 years.  Eagle is a diversified food company producing and marketing sweetened condensed and evaporated milk, snacks and convenient meal solutions products.  As a company, Eagle Foods is passionate about fostering an entrepreneurial spirit that boldly builds better people and better brands while focusing on the positive impact our company, our products and our people have on the world.  Eagle Foods has a bold family of brands that consumers have come to rely on for decades, including Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk and Evaporated Milk, Magnolia® Sweetened Condensed Milk, PET® Milk, Popcorn Indiana, Cretors Popcorn, Helper and Suddenly Salad.  Eagle Foods products are marketed and distributed across all U.S. retail channels, including grocery stores, club stores and mass-merchandisers, as well as foodservice and export, U.S. military, and private label business.

The Production/Deployment Scheduler is responsible for the day-to-day scheduling of  production in order to meet demand and maintain target inventories. It is the responsibility of the Production Scheduler to be aware of the plant’s operating plan and anticipate problems that could affect daily schedules, thus affecting long-term goals.  This role is also responsible for deploying production into the distribution network in the right quantities to meet the needs of the business.  To be effective, it is imperative that the Production/Deployment Scheduler demonstrate coherent communication and positive relations with all internal stakeholders at all levels of the organization.

• Maintain tools & data required to create weekly production schedule by working with the Manager of Supply Planning and the plant to understand:
  • Which sku’s are Make to Order (MTO) vs. Make to Stock (MTS)
  • How safety stocks are set for each make to stock finished goods sku and what the safety stock levels are for all items you are asked to plan
  • The plant operating strategy inclusive of production system identification, hours of operation by production system, overtime communication and lead time expectations, process system rates by formula, packing asset rates and efficiencies, how bag sizes should be paired to ensure process assets are not blocked by packaging rates, sanitation requirements, desired production sequences, minimum run lengths/quantities on each production system, key staffing constraints/considerations, and how downtime and experimental runs are scheduled and communicated
• Build production plans & detailed line schedules weekly by using all the above components to create feasible, optimized line schedules by day for assigned production systems that both deliver the business needs and align with the plant operating strategy. Production schedules should be developed to maintain safety stock levels considerate of all open orders on MTS items and cover orders for MTO items.
• Release schedule to the plant and adjust MOs within the week when inventory needs will not be sufficient to maintain safety stocks or meet open orders and propose options to enable orders to be covered or safety stocks to be restored. Be open to feedback on proposed solutions to create win-win outcomes.
• Effectively communicate weekly schedule & work with others to ensure the business needs are being met by attending daily and weekly plant scheduling meetings to:
  • Review proposed production plans for agreed to future periods
  • Get feedback on the proposed plan and align to changes to optimize the business (service & plant performance)
  • Get updates on material inventory and delivery status
  • Propose in week adjustments to production schedules and discuss why the schedule needs to be changed.
  • Incorporate plan changes agreed to by business partners (plant leadership, material planners, your manager, etc.) into the schedule
  • Work with customer service on when product will be available to fill customer orders
• Plan and execute new item launches, in and out events, and item transitions in a way that delivers fill rate but minimizes obsolescence
• Schedule inventory deployment to the distribution network to support target inventory levels and customer demand
• Other duties and projects as assigned

Experience:          3 to 5 years of experience in planning and scheduling desired

Education:             BS or BA degree from an accredited university desired.  Experience in lieu of degree considered

Critical Skills /

Personal Attributes:

• Ability to Travel to our Waukegan, IL Plant one week out of each month.
  • Travel will be increased in the first six months of employment. 
  • Candidate must be located in Illinois.
• Knowledge of production scheduling and supply chain planning processes, interdependencies and impacts that scheduling changes have to both upstream and downstream partners.
• Experience doing detailed line scheduling in an ERP system; preferably experience using INFOR Scheduling Workbench
• MS Office skills inclusive of an ability to use Outlook, Word and Excel
• Ability to identify, effectively resolve (most of the time) and escalate (some of the time, when needed) issues that will negatively impact the business
• Strong communication skills, verbal and written including ‘seeking to understand, then to be understood’
• Collaboration skills and an ability to work with others to create win-win outcomes
• Demonstrates ability to learn new skills and new ways of working, and apply them in a professional environment
• Continuous improvement mindset including being willing to challenge the status quo when business needs are not being met